From a driver's perspective, both SF34 and SB20 (to use the correct type identifiers) are/were very well engineered AC. The SB20's I flew were full glass with FMS, so unlike someone else suggested, an avionics upgrade is certainly not required! They're fast, economical and apart from being slightly overpowered (so much so that the YD was a MEL item), very safe to operate. SB20 as of this writing has 2 all time hull losses, neither with fatalities. One where mechanics taxied into a closed hangar door, the other when former colleagues of mine made some poor decisions and stripped it of its landing gear after touchdown. The SF34, given the much larger number of units delivered, has an even more impressive record. Only 0.8% of all airframes were involved in fatal incidents, a number similar to Dash-8's (0.5%), and compares very favourably to ATR's 42/72, both variants lost 2.5% of their fleet in fatals, that's a safety record 3 times worse than Saab/Dash!
Regional air transport (which is the market for this sort of aircraft) has its inherent dangers with generally less experienced pilots, and sometimes lesser capable and more overworked crew. It's therefore no surprise that regional turboprops suffer higher accident rates than long range... or do they!? Let's have a look at the hull loss numbers involving fatalities as a percentage of the manufactured fleet, extracted from ASN, terrorism not counted, in ascending order:
SB20: 0%
B777: 0%
A340: 0%
A318-321: 0.2%
A330: 0.3%
B767: 0.4%
DH8x: 0.5%
B757: 0.5%
SF34: 0.8%
B737: 1.4%
B747: 1.4%
AT4x/AT7x: 2.5%
A310: 3%
JS31/41: 3%
B190: 3.7%
SW4: 5%
Well who'd have thought it? Hull loss rates lower than 1% are pretty good even for bigger aircraft and probably indicate an air frame and systems that are forgiving. I'd say there is some evidence in those numbers stating that Saab made two fantastic aircraft, and I would welcome them back on the scene!
I haven't been inside a SB20 in about 20 years, however, fairly regularly use Rex's services here in Oz serviced by SF34s, and it's a clear cut case: Even though the average Rex crew tends to frighten me, I'm fairly confident the hardware is OK. That can't be said for some other locals here I refuse to board, such as Aeropelican's Jetstreams (3% hull loss) or anyone flying Metros for that matter (5% fleet hull loss).
Just the Doctor's opinion, but with some interesting numbers!
Last edited by ZeeDoktor; 3rd Jun 2012 at 02:50.